Maximum Ride, the Draco Deviation
by Damian Gentleheart
Summary: What if the flock got a new experiment on the team? One that was different from them? This is the story of that mutant, Apex Vision
1. Chapter 1

Maximum Ride

Maximum Ride: The Draco Deviation

1

Hey. What's up? Nothing much, I'm sure, if you're reading this. But as you read this, take note; you very well might end up in a situation like this. If you do, never forget; you aren't alone.

My name's Apex. Me and the featherwings are wing-buddies. I call Max and her family the featherwings, or the f-wings for short. She doesn't mention me in her stories because of one of my powers. Yes, powers. You see, we're all mutants. If you want more information, you'll have to find "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment" and read it for yourself. My story starts when the f-wings broke into the IHL, the Institute of Higher Living. The only kind of 'high' there was either the drug-induced kind or the flying kind. Either way, it wasn't good.

When they opened the door to the caging area I was in, I automatically made myself unnoticed. I don't mean I made myself invisible; if only I could. I mean that I forced anyone who looked at me to ignore me. It's more of a mental thing than a physical one. In any case, they were opening all of the cage doors. I didn't say anything because I was still afraid. Is this some kind of new psychological test? They pretend to let us go, then capture us one by one? I decided to go along anyway.

To make a long story short, it wasn't. They really were the real deal. We all got out, but Molly, our own personal angel winged girl, decided she didn't want to go with the f-wings, and most agreed with her. But I on the other hand, wanted to stick with them; they seemed cool. But I kept my power on; I didn't want them to get scared and send me away.

I followed them all the way to the bandstand. When Max started laying out all of the pages she had printed, I got excited. But when I began looking over the shoulders of the f-wings, I lost interest quickly; they had only printed out stuff about themselves. So I went to the back of the bandstand, the darkest corner, and lay down. I closed my purple snake's eyes and fell asleep. Yes, I said snake's eyes. You see, just as the f-wings are avian mutations, I am a… well, you may not believe me when I tell you. I'm a dragon mutation. No, I don't have scales everywhere or anything. All I have are humongous wings, harder-than-average skin, and the ability to make myself unnoticed. And the purple snake eyes, of course.

I got my mutation from my creator, the 'great' Doctor Frank N. Stein. Odd, that the person who makes mutants for fun (like myself) has a name similar to that age old doctor who brought a monster made of dead parts to life.

Unlike the f-wings, I like the dark. The purple snake eyes are a by-product of night vision testing. Apparently, Iggy, the explosives and electronics expert, was tested on for the same thing. But he went blind. I'm just a weirdo. I tell him all the time that I'd change at any time. That way, I wouldn't have to put up with the looks people give me. But seeing as neither of us are doctors, I think that would be hard to pull off. So Iggy stays blind, and I tell people that I have contact lenses.

I woke the next morning, sneaking around the sleeping bodies and taking some food from each pack I saw. Since there were six of them, plus the dog, I couldn't take too much from any one bag; otherwise they'd know I was there. And wouldn't you know it, when I get near the little girl's bag -Angel, I think- that dog, Total, wakes up.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love animals, as long as they aren't Erasers and aren't trying to kill me. But there are two ways to get by my power of penumbra. Either you have to be looking for me specifically, or get an animal because animals can see me all the time.

So Total woke up, saw me closing Angel's bag, and he went off. He tried to bite me, but I took off into the air. He continually barked as he tried to jump up and bite me. Soon the entire flock was awake.

Max, always the leader, was the first to act. While Total kept me busy, they had been packing. But a few seconds before takeoff, Angel remembered that Total wasn't with them. I had caught him and was holding him down while he scratched at my chest. Go harder skin. Max looked up at me, and I looked down at her. "If you want Total back, you can have him. Just please take me with you!" I landed 10 feet away from Max and the other f-wings. I kneeled down slowly and let Total go. He tried to snap at me, but I pulled away.

As Total trotted over to Angel, Max stared at me. "Why do you want to come with us? We don't even know you."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know. But I know something about you. You set me free, and I know your names. I just want to be as free as you are. I hated the Institution; you may have an idea as to what it was like." I said, gesturing to their wings.

Max, who was still wary of me, walked over to Angel. She knelt down and whispered in her ear. As I looked on, Angel nodded, then turned to stare at me. I felt like something was crawling over my head, then it felt like someone flipped a switch and I could hear the thoughts of the six.

_What does he look like? _Probably Iggy, seeing as he's blind.

_Why are his different from ours? _Sounds like a child.

_Why are his eyes all purple like that? Maybe it's because of the testing. Testing has weird effects on people…_Wow. Who's the chatterbox?

_Can we trust him? _Two counts of that one.

_I wanna bite him for scaring me! _Huh?

_What? You can read minds too? _Double huh?

When I heard the last thought, I saw Angel's eyes open wider. Who is this? Who's… reading my mind? _I am. Angel._ What?! Well, what are you looking for? _The possibility that you are working for the School or the Institute._ I shook my head in amazement because I apparently had a new power. But besides that… Well, if that's all, go ahead and search. And search she did. Me, with my new power, pushed all of my thoughts in front her 'searchlight' for scrutiny.

Once she was certain I wasn't out to get them, she pulled away from my mind and turned to Max. I didn't hear what they said, but Max turned towards me, as did Fang. "Ok, you can fly with us. But first sign of treachery, we will beat you down." I smiled for the first time in years. "Thank you, so much. And don't worry, I won't be a burden."

And I wasn't. The first time we landed, it was a cold night. I was able to keep warm because of my natural extra warmth and the fact that I wrapped my wings around myself. But when I saw the f-wings shivering, especially Angel, I decided to prove my use. I gathered firewood and lit it. This wasn't really remarkable in itself except for how I lit it. I used my own personal fire breath.

Like I said, dragon mutant.

The f-wings were pleased, but also surprised. I hadn't told them about that particular power yet. I got a wave of _Whoa!_'s when flames poured from my mouth. "Oh. Right. I can breathe fire. Sorry I didn't mention it before." They stepped close to the fire and Gasman, who seemed to be the friendliest, or least shy, asked "So, how'd you get mutated?"

I noticed Max was about to say something and I raised my brown skinned hand. "No, that's fine. I'll answer." I turned to him, running my fingers over my relatively short black hair; the doctors had always kept it short to watch for horn growth.

And that was when I told them about the good doctor Frankenstein, my testing, my known mutations including the mind reading, and why I had hidden my presence at first. After my story, Iggy was 'looking' into the fire pensively, Fang stared at me, shooting glances at Max, who shot back, Angel looked on the verge of tears, and Gasman's mouth was a little 'o'. Nudge opened her mouth and began to speak rapid-fire, just as I had been warned by Angel. She hadn't told me much about each, but she had told me that Nudge was a big talker and that Fang wasn't.

I smiled and laid down, curling up for sleep. "Well, with that tale, I say goodnight." I heard the rest of them lying down for sleep as well. I hope I didn't scare them… I thought to myself. I felt Angel's mind touch my own and heard her thoughts.  
_It's fine. We're jumpy over new stuff._ For my sake, I hope that was all.


	2. Chapter 2

Maximum Ride: The Draco Deviation

Maximum Ride: The Draco Deviation

2

Later, we were flying over water. I, along with the f-wings, was swooping down towards the water and catching myself at the last second, gliding back up. But while they were mostly silent, my wings opened with a snap that made Max jump. So I quickly stopped; she didn't need to put up with me AND a talking dog.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention? Total can talk, although not everyone knows. The only reason I know is because I read his mind. What can I say; I got bored, and I wanted to practice mind reading. So when I read his mind, I got those more human-like thoughts.

It was a lot of fun to watch the others until I picked up a sense of slight panic from Max. I turned to look where she was looking and saw… wolf-creatures with wings. These things were big, hairy, and ugly. Not to mention ungainly with those huge wings. Max called them Erasers, and they were flying. This was not a happy situation, and I took it that these guys had encountered them before, with negative outcomes.

When they caught up with us, things went into chaos. I, according to my personal self preservation plan, became unnoticeable. Not that it helped much. I saw all six of them go after the Erasers with a vengeance. One of the Erasers headed for me, claws extended. I flapped up at the last second and kicked it in the back. I heard at least one pop as the Eraser dropped a little, then turned and began to fly at me again. It looked like it was expecting me to fly up again, so I did just the opposite. I flipped upside-down and kicked the Eraser in the chest.

I heard the air whoosh out of its lungs as it fell, barely catching itself above the waves and flying away. I saw an Eraser flying after Angel and I took off after it. When they passed near enough, I took a deep breath in and let loose with a sheet of flame that caught the Eraser's wings and sent it tumbling down. It hit the ocean with a painful sounding splash. I watched as Angel told an Eraser it would fall. For a second, the Eraser was simply confused. That changed as it fell towards the ocean. Wow. What a power.

Two Erasers flew straight at me. I flew towards them and turned at the last second, letting my feet crash into their faces. I bent my knees to absorb the impact, but they didn't fare as well. Both of their noses were probably broken, not that they didn't deserve it.

I realized how much effect Angel had had on the group when Max was asking for status reports. She ran the gauntlet of her friends and then turned to me. "Apex?" I did a sort of aerial bow. "My knees hurt from kicking in Eraser noses, but fine." She nodded, and I felt a lifting in my heart. She cared enough to ask about me and listen. I turned towards Angel and touched her mind with my own. Thank you so much for reading my mind. She turned to me and raised an eyebrow, but I just smiled.

They started discussing the new Erasers, so I just flapped in place, keeping quiet. I had had no experience with the old ones, so I just watched out for more. I was the first to notice when Fang was slowing down. Max and I flew near him. "What's going on?" she asked in a way that suggested that he better tell her.

"Nothing." Was all he said, but he was obviously lying. I looked him over and saw his arm a second before Max did. Immediately afterwards, his eyes fluttered and he began to fall. Max and I plunged downwards to grab him, supporting his weight. We landed and saw that he was having trouble breathing. She took off his shirt and saw that he had gotten cut during the fight.

I was about to suggest something when she spoke. "Nudge, you and Gazzy and Angel rip up a shirt or something. Make strips for bandages." When Nudge just sat there in shock, Max repeated her name. Nudge began to move and I moved over next to Max.

I nudged her. "Max." She looked up at me with a 'what?' face. "I can help." Her eyes widened and she gestured for me to tell her. "I could cauterize the wound." Seeing she didn't understand, I rephrased the words. "I can close the wound, but I'll have to burn it. I've done it before and I'm still alive." I showed her a wound on my shoulder where I had gotten cut in the Institute. She gritted her teeth, then nodded. I gestured for her to get back, then breathed a small fan of flame onto the wound. Working quickly, I moved my head back and forth until the skin was sealed.

"Iggy, lift Fang's feet." Max turned to the three she had set to making bandages. "Guys, you got those strips ready?" They handed her the strips, and she began to tie them around Fang's injured torso. A man who was walking down the shore stopped, took one look, and called 911. Max turned to Nudge. "Nudge? Take Gazzy, Angel, and Apex and find a place to hide. We'll go to the hospital. You stay around here, and I'll come back when I can. Quick, before the EMT guys get here."

Gasman began speaking in some language or code I didn't understand, and Max gave up when the paramedics arrived. They asked a few questions, but the one that got to me most was the one about my cauterization. "What happened?" Max told them he was attacked, and they shook their heads. 'No, after that. Who or what did this cauterization? And with what? It's effective, but it looks like it was done with a blowtorch." Max looked my direction and I hid myself, both with my ability and by wrapping my wings around myself until they looked like a cloak.

"I don't know. It was like this when I noticed." The paramedics looked at each other, then began loading Fang onto a stretcher. I could see the panic and worry on Max's face.

Just as we were approaching the hospital, a heart rate meter started beeping really fast. "Uh-oh—he's fibrillating. Get the paddles." They were going to shock Fang! I grabbed the hands of one of the paramedics while Max yelled. That stopped them very quickly, as did the chaos of the hospital.  
They wheeled him out and I tried to follow, but a nurse stopped me and Max. "I need some information while the doctors see to him." She turned to Max. "What's his name? Is he your boyfriend?" I saw Max blush a little in spite of the situation.

"He's my brother… Nick. Nick Ride." She said hesitantly. The nurse obviously didn't believe her. She didn't believe Nudge either. "We were adopted," Max said. I came out of 'hiding', not that it was necessary; the nurse had been looking for people trying to sneak by, so my power didn't work on her. "Our parents are… missionaries. They're away on a… short mission. I'm in charge." I nodded my agreement.

That pacified the nurse, but then a doctor in green scrubs jogged up. "Miss?" he said, looking at Max, then the rest of us. His eyes lingered on me, and I understood why; I have purple eyes and what looked like a leathery cape.

I really need to get something less conspicuous… I thought to myself. Max left with the doctor and Iggy motioned all of us towards the waiting room. I saw Angel whisper into Iggy's ear and he pulled off his backpack and pulled out an extra jacket.

I didn't know what was happening until he handed it to me. "Seems like you need some cover." I thanked him and Angel; they were all so kind to me. After the Institute, this was heaven. I put on the jacket; it was one of those ones that looked like it was made from stitched-together jeans, but I liked it. It covered my bunched wings well and I still had room for full movement.

Before we reached the waiting room, however, a nurse stopped us and offered us a secluded room. We walked in and took seats. A few minutes later, two men and a woman walked in, sat down, and gave us food. We were starving and the food looked good, but I guess we'd all learned, from the Institute or the School, that food from an unknown source couldn't be trusted. Angel touched my mind.

_You think the food is safe?_

I just shook my head. Absolutely not. We sat tight lipped, looking away from the food until Max arrived.

After inviting her to take a seat, they told her that they were from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Max bantered with them for a second before telling Angel to give Total some of her food. He jumped up on the chair next to her and wagged his tail, but Angel didn't do it.  
The agents stood and took a little food from each plate, including the one that was bought in for Max. When they didn't die, Max let us loose. We annihilated that food, and we all asked for more. Hey, we were hungry.

After we were finished eating, they took us into a conference room. There were 6 different tables; one for each of us, apparently. One of the agents gestured to me and I sat down at the table. "Ok, what's your name?"  
I smiled. "Alex. Alex Ride."

He wrote it down, then looked up again. He showed me a picture of a random guy. "Do you recognize this man?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "No. Should I? Is he, like, a mass murderer or something?" He put the picture away.  
"And how old are you, Alex?  
"I'm twelve. How about you, if you don't mind me asking?"

He ignored me and continued on. "What's up with your eyes?"  
I grinned widely. "Contacts. I LOVE making my eyes look weird. Makes life more interesting."  
"Have you ever been to California?" I shook my head. "Well, have you ever heard of a place called the School?"

I looked at him quizzically. "What, you mean like an elementary school? Or something else?" The agent shook his head, wrote down my last answer, and stood up.

"We're done here, Alex." I smiled and shook his hand; he made a face as he felt my slightly harder than usual skin. I went and sat next to Nudge, sitting on the ground with my back to the chair.

I was facing Max and her agent, my eyes barely open. I was focusing my hearing, and I heard the agent say "…got to help us too. Fair is fair." I snorted; what did he mean, fair is fair? Life was never fair, especially to DNA recombinants.

Apparently Max agreed with me because I heard her say "You're kidding, right? Please tell me there's a stronger motive than 'fair is fair'." I saw her lean forward, and her voice became hard. "Nothing is fair, _ever_. You think 'fair is fair' will work? Try something more like 'You need to help me so I won't rip out your spine and beat you with it.' I _might_ respond to that… when pigs fly." I saw the agent's jaw tighten, but a woman stepped through the door and stopped him.  
Dean stood and went to talk to another agent while the woman sat down across from Max. I was distracted as one of the agents brought us all bagels. We all grabbed one and I grabbed the bag; there was one left. When Max looked over, I held up the bag to show we had some waiting for her.

I was bored and I laid down, on my stomach, and listened to whatever caught my interest. I heard about one of the agents' plans for that night while another spoke about how little she liked us 'sarcastic little snots'. Believe me, lady, the feeling's mutual. I thought. And then I heard Max talking about a safe place for offer. When the lady said her house, warning bells went off in my head. I was pretty new at this, but I was SURE that staying in one place for too long was a very bad idea. I shook off the bells and didn't worry about it.

Later, when Max went to the OR to see about Fang/Nick, I ghosted (my new name for going unnoticed) and followed her. She was pacing back and forth until the doctor from before walked out. I saw Max tilt forward on her toes, then tilt back; she wanted information, badly. I couldn't blame her, personally. When the doctor saw us, he walked over. "Ah, yes, Max, is it? Well, your brother Nick- it was hard to tell for a while. Once he received some blood substitute, his blood pressure normalized."

Max was very close to bursting out yelling; I could see it in her face. I'd had enough experience with that when the doctors at the Institute found me difficult to control. "We re-patched his side and stopped the hemorrhaging. One of his main arteries was hit and one of his… air sacs." He saw her eyes crease in worry. "But he's holding steady. If nothing goes wrong, he should be fine in three weeks."  
I tuned into Max's thoughts; I wanted to hear her reaction on this whole thing.  
_Three weeks? To us, that sounds like six days with our healing speed. But that's still a long time…_ "Can I see him?" Yup; closer than brother and sister, methinks. The doctor shook his head.

"Not until he comes out of recovery. Maybe in forty minutes. Now, I was hoping you could fill me in…" I de-ghosted and stepped up behind her, staring at him intently. He almost continued, but stopped rather quickly. "Um… never mind." I guess he figured out the message I was silently sending him; Be on your way, before you get hurt.

We walked back to the waiting area and the f-wings cheered when they heard about Fang. I walked over to Iggy and offered my fist, forgetting in my relief that he was blind. But as I remembered, he put out his own and pounded it as if he had planned it. I didn't ask, mostly because I didn't have time to. "Can we go see him?" Iggy asked Max, who returned with a crack about his blindness. I smiled and chuckled and Iggy somehow smiled and scowled at the same time; a tricky feat.

The woman came up behind Max. "Hi, everyone. Max may have told you about me- I'm Anne Walker from the FBI." I inwardly rolled my eyes. We got it already. "Has Max filled you in on the agreement we made?" I, along with everyone else, nodded.  
Angel looked at her. "Yes. We'll stay at your house for a teensy little while." Anne nodded. "Us and Total." Anne was confused, asking who Total was. "My dog." Angel said, pointing to him.

Just as Anne was about to ask something, Max cut her off. "Yes, so when F…Nick is better, we can go to Anne's, rest up, and get Nick to 100. We all nodded, some more or less excited than others. But when Max heard that Fang wouldn't be moving for about a week, she got serious. "No. That's not what I agreed to. We're not leaving Nick here." We all gathered around her, nodding our agreement.

"We're all staying here." I said with conviction. "Until Nick is better."  
Anne tried reassuring us, using comfort, and then mobility. Nothing shook us. Later, we ended up in Fang's room, which had an empty bed. Gasman tried to be chivalrous, but Max shut him down. It ended up with Angel and Gasman on the bed, because they were smallest, and the rest sleeping on the floor. I slept in the chair; I was used to sleeping in small spaces from my cage in the Institute.

And of course, Nick got his own bed. "You're looking pretty gape-free at this point." Max said. He nodded grimly, then turned to me. Max followed his gaze to me in my chair, where I had been watching them. "Yeah, in case you didn't know, _Alex_ here managed to seal up your side before you lost too much blood." Fang blinked once, then nodded slowly. I recognized that was as close to a thanks as I would get, and I smiled and nodded in his direction.

"Anytime." I said.

We went to bed early and hard. Well, most of us did. Max and I were still awake. She didn't try to hide it; I did. I was trying to fall asleep, but I was having difficulty. When Max got up and ran some water, I opened my eyes to watch, make sure she was ok. When she whipped around, looking around the room, I stayed still. She looked back, and jerked backwards. Whatever it was that was bothering her, it was in the mirror. I tried to shift and look, but she looked around guiltily, so I had to stop.

Finally, after a few more minutes, she checked on Fang and finally fell asleep.  
The next morning came, and the doctor was amazed. He had come to check on our injured friend to find that all he had was a slight scar. "Guess we can leave now." He seemed like normal, and all was good. But Anne told him to lie back down, and he looked at her calmly. I could already see where this was going.

"Now that you're feeling better, maybe you can ask your brothers and sisters to come with me. I offered all of you a place to recuperate, but they refuse to leave without you. But I'm sure you can see how uncomfortable they are and how comfortable they'd be in normal beds. Not to mention the fact that you'd be joining us in a week or so." She smiled.  
Max leaned against a wall. "So, how do you feel about it, Nick?" Max asked. She, along with the rest of us, had briefed him on the situation at six, since the nurse felt the sudden urge to take Fang's temperature at that ungodly hour.

Fang looked at Max. "Whatever Max says. She's in charge." Anne looked at Max, who shrugged. Total chuckled.  
"I stand by what I said before. I'm not leaving without all of them." The doctor looked happy about that, trying to interject with something about 'examining', but Anne dismissed him fairly quickly. "We heal really quickly."

Fang sat up and looked around. "What does a guy have to do to get some food around here?" he asked, and Max pushed him a tray with food that we had all saved for him.

"You still have an IV. The doctors don't want…" She stopped talking when Fang's eyes narrowed and I gave her a look that said 'What do you know?'

"It seems as though he's fine with solids." I said tightly. "Maybe we could all get out of here?" And I knew that the others liked this place as little as I did. Anything antiseptic-smelling, hospital-like, science labby; it all brought back bad, bad memories.

Anne sighed. "Fine." Max looked taken aback. "Fine, we can go. Just let me clear the paperwork." She walked out of the room.  
Max turned to all of us. "Very nice wording, Alex." I nodded. "Everyone keep your head up and your eyes open. I don't know what's coming."

I patted Iggy's shoulder lightly. "And in your case, keep your ears open." I said with a smile. He smile-scowled and lightly elbowed me in the chest.  
Max turned to Fang. "Can you move?" He shrugged, then nodded, pushing the tray away.

"Of course." Said Iggy. "Fnick is like, Superman."

Max smiled. "Shut up, Jeff."


	3. Chapter 3

Maximum Ride: The Draco Deviation

Maximum Ride: The Draco Deviation

3

"Gol, Virginia is shore purty." Max said. Gasman grinned, and I chuckled. Ms. Walker's Suburban held all 8 recombinants; I still think it was somehow mechanically designed to be bigger than it looked.

But the Gasman was right; it _was_ pretty. I saw trees, and hills, and even horses. I spent my time describing it to Iggy and watching Max. Max seemed really jumpy for some reason. Nudge, as usual, spent all her time talking to anyone and everyone who would listen. She asked about the ranches, the trees, Anne's house (which wasn't a bad question, now that I think about it.), and myriad other things.

When we pulled into the gates, I looked around. I wanted to make sure I had a mental map of this place; I really like knowing my way around a place. When the gates closed, I saw Max jump again. She's really jumpy. And for good reason. I don't know why, but I could sympathize with Max. And also with Fang, and Iggy, and the others as well. I didn't know why, but I just understood and could relate to however the others felt.  
When we got out of the car, I could only stand and stare. "Wow…" Iggy, or should I say, Jeff, was trying to get me to tell him what it was like, but I was too busy being shell shocked. Seriously, imagine the scenario; one dragon boy who's never lived inside anywhere bigger than the largest size doggy carrier, who managed to escape and is now going to live in a house. Sure I was nervous about being enclosed, but _still_!

Sadly, I noticed one problem immediately; there were 7 rooms, and 8 people. Luckily enough, I was used to sleeping in or on hard surfaces; that's all you got at the Institute. So I just slept in the living room, on the couch. But first I had a nice, warm shower.

I had to work hard not to stretch my wings out in pleasure.

I went out back to find that the others had already made it outside. Anne was showing them around and they were walking towards the barn. "Hey! Don't forget me!" I yelled as I ran up. They all turned, and I stopped for a second. _This _was my perfect ideal of a family. Multiple children, a loving mother, wide open spaces, animals. The only problem with it was the fact that most of my 'family' had some messed up DNA sequences. The fly in the ointment.

When I stopped, Angel walked up to me. Leaving my mind alone, she grabbed my hand and pulled me over, breaking my reverie. I joined the group as we went into the barn. We saw the huge horse Sugar; Nudge and I gave him carrots, and I ended up petting him on the nose. Anne turned and walked back to the house, telling us that dinner was in half an hour.

I knew there would be plenty of food.

We were walking by the pond and the Gasman got pumped. "Ohhhhh _yeah_! I am so there!" I shook my head; he got so excited over some of the tiniest stuff. Max was staring at the pool like she had acute hydrophobia, but I didn't say anything. She seemed stressed enough about our current situation without my assistance.

We walked on, and Nudge said "It's so beautiful here. Like the Garden of Eden." I nodded, slowly looking around at the hills, the water, taking it all in. If only I had been born here. Mutant freak or not, I would have been happy. I heard Max grumbling about how badly the Garden of Eden had turned out; I just rolled my eyes. I then saw some animals; pigs, sheep, and a few more horses.

I nudged Iggy. "Hey, _Jeff_, there's some more animals over there." He made a 'lead on' gesture, and I walked towards the pigs. How he followed me and stopped immediately at the fence, I'll never guess. I ran a hand down the pig's back and it squealed. I felt a pair of eyes on the back of my head and turned to see Max turning her head away. I wonder what that's all about..? She turned to Fang and he smiled, and she led the rest of the group over. She asked what we had been talking about. "Oh, just the birds. And the little things with feathers and beaks." She tried to do an Iggy scowlsmile, but failed.

"I wonder who's for dinner, right Alex?" she asked me. I smiled and laughed. Total jumped from Max's arms and started barking at one of those shepherd dogs. "Total!" Max yelled. "Stop it! It's his yard. Angel!" Angel pulled Total to a stop and he called the other dog a putz. I looked at Max, who was standing there with a _very_ confused look. She turned and saw Gasman, and her mouth shut. "Come on, guys. Lets go eat."

A few minutes after dinner, Max and the others went up to Max's room. While they were looking over the printouts, I went for a 'walk'. Now, while for you, a walk might be a few minutes and a few yards. For me, a walk was me taking off into the darkening sky and gliding around the house for a while. Anyone who saw me would just think I was a really big bat or something.

Now I'm not crazy or anything, but I liked to talk to myself. For me, talking to myself was a way to figure things out. Now I know that that is normal, but the 'crazy' part is that sometimes, I'll answer myself. So. How are you doing? "I'm ok. Much better than at the Institute." No jealousy about the connections between the f-wings? "No, no jealousy." You're not telling the whole truth. You're jealous about something. And that was when I found out what I was trying to block out. When I had first seen them, they had been looking through the printouts, looking for information on their parents. They all had known each other for longer, so they obviously cared more about each other's happiness. That was part of the reason they had come to the Institute; they were looking for facts about their parents.

But I was still 'the new guy', as much as they didn't act it. Also, they had only printed out stuff about each other. They had nothing on me or any of the other experiments. And even if they had, they would have either burned it or tossed it out. I just felt that loneliness that came from having a cause all to yourself and being a new face in a line of old.

Sounds like being a new kid at school. Except I've never gone to school. I sighed again and began gliding back to the house.

I settled on the roof, curled up with my back to the chimney, my wings wrapped around myself. I looked around, not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

I went back inside when I heard Anne asking if anyone was sleepy. I also heard her ask about me. I jumped from the roof, fanning my wings before I hit the ground for a soft landing. Coming through the front door, I saw Anne look down over the banister at me. "Oh, there you are, Alex. I was wondering where you'd gone." I nodded and walked into the living room, but not before calling goodnight to everyone up the stairs. I heard a chorus of 'good night' s and I smiled.

The next morning was awesome. Max and Iggy made a cornucopia of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast; _the works_. After that, we discovered that Anne wanted us all to keep our sleeping areas neat, which we did. It seemed to irk Max, but I didn't pry, vocally or telepathically. We spent a lot of our time outside, with breaks for lunch. Also, Anne called us to her one by one and had us show her what we could do.

When it was my turn, I glided down and came to a running stop right in front of her. She jumped a little, which I expected; I had always enjoyed doing that to the scientists at the Institute. "So, Alex. Anything special besides the obvious." She pointed at my wings.

I nodded. "Yeah. Hard skin, fire breathing, and the ability to make myself irresistibly cute." I smiled widely on the last one, wondering why I hadn't told her about my ghosting or my telepathy. Duh. If she knew you could ghost, she'd know how to find you and if you told her about telepathy… She asked me for a demonstration of my fire breath and I happily obliged. I pulled out an apple I had been saving for later and threw it into the air. Aiming carefully, I blew a stream of fire on it, toasting it nicely. As it fell, I caught it, barely feeling the heat. "And here is a demonstration of my skin." I held the apple out and she put out her own hand, obviously feeling the heat radiating off the apple. She thanked me and let me go. I turned and shot up into the air, biting into my apple; they always tasted better toasted.

Dinner was somewhat like last night. There was a lot of food (for us starving recombinants, or recos for short), but most of it was not too well prepared. Apparently Anne was more for having a quick protein bar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And that wasn't working out. But she was cooking and I didn't have to, so I didn't complain.

About two weeks later, I was lying on the couch. I was, for some reason, still wide awake at about 11 o'clock; it might have had something to do with the 5 milkshakes I had had at dinner, not to mention the Liam Rooney from Max's room. When I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. Hopefully it wasn't Anne coming for another midnight check-up; it was beginning to irritate me. Through slitted eyes, I saw, not Anne, but Fang. He stared at me for a full minute, then turned and headed back upstairs.

Max's room was right above my own, so I could easily hear what was going on. I heard Max and Fang talking. Fang had come up with the idea that the numbers on the sheets were map coordinates. I chuckled when Fang called Anne the Annemeister. Hey, I think odd things are funny, ok?

They planned to step out and check out one of the coordinates. I decided to follow, simply because that's how I am. If I wasn't a reco, I'd probably have gotten myself killed. As the saying goes, 'curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.' Since I slept in whatever clothes I had been wearing that day, I just hopped off the couch and followed the two out of the house, ghosted of course.

Where we first landed looked _nothing_ like a residential area. I saw a pizza parlor I'm hungry , a car wash If only I could drive… , a bank I wish I had money to withdraw , and a dry cleaner now I know where to go when I have dirty clothes while on the run. Max cursed and I chuckled quietly to myself. If Anne had heard Max, she would have flipped. Of course, if she found out we had gone out, she would flip anyway.

Second place we stopped was near an old, abandoned apartment building. With all the activity, it looked inhabited from the air. And then you landed.

After about fifty minutes of waiting for people to leave, they headed in and I decided to wait, ghosted, outside. There were a lot of crack-heads out here and whenever the police went by, they hid in the nearest building. I stopped a few of them from trying to hide in the apartment; I didn't want Fang and Max getting caught.

While I was out there, a drunkard stumbled by. Looking straight at me, he wound his way over. "Hhhhhhey… d-d-do I knowwww you?" he asked. I looked around and, seeing no one, shook my head. "Oh… well, tak-k-ke c-c-care…" He said, and slumped over on the ground.

Note to self; ghosting doesn't work on drunks, either. I looked around to see some guy's back go inside the building. Oh shoot. I spun around and raced into the building, but two of the men were about half way up already. The third, slower guy received a quick rap on the head, knocking him cold. I stashed him away where he wouldn't be seen readily and ran after the other two.

When I caught up with them, they were threatening Max and Fang. Fang was on one end of the hall, Max was on the other. I snuck up behind Max, hoping to find a way to help when Fang did this whole Angel-of-Death thing. Max joined in and, in the heat of the moment, I decided to join in. moved over to the doorway between Max and Fang, spread my wings, and de-ghosted. "Get. OUUUUUT!!" I said in my deepest and scariest voice. The guys basically fell over themselves going down the stairs.

Both Max and Fang turned to me. "Apex?! What are you _doing_?! Why did you follow us?!" I shrugged, slightly rolling my eyes at the same time.

"Uh, I don't know, maybe because you were sneaking out of the house late at night. If anything happened to you two, the rest need to know. Plus, I was awake anyway, so…" Fang glared at me from behind Max's back and I gave him a cool and indifferent look. "Maybe we should get back. You two can berate me later."


End file.
